Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:54:37.259Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Children's comprehension of their mothers' question-directives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Marilyn Shatz
Affiliation:
Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York

Abstract

Much of adult communication is carried on at the subtle level of indirect utterance meaning, where the speaker's intent is not literally expressed in his or her utterance. This work investigates the young child's ability to respond appropriately to the intended, as opposed to the literal, meaning of one class of such utterances, requests for action. The data were the responses of five children between 1; 7 and 2; 4 to the direct and indirect requests for action their mothers produced during a natural play session. All the children responded with action to requests for it regardless of how subtly the requests were expressed. The apparent ability of two-year-olds to deal with indirect speech acts is surprising in that the understanding of such utterances by adults is presumed to depend on a combination of sophisticated rule systems. Rather than grant the young child such knowledge, the alternative of an action-based response heuristic is proposed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

A version of this work was presented to the Linguistic Society of America at the summer meeting 1974, in a paper entitled ‘The comprehension of indirect directives: can two-year-olds shut the door?’ The research was supported by NICHD training grant, HD 00337, to the author and by NICHD research grant, HD 527444, to Rochel Gelman. The author wishes to thank Marjorie Horton and Janet May for their assistance in coding the data. Address for correspondence: Dept. of Psychology, University of Michigan, 330 Packard Rd., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104, U.S.A.

References

REFERENCES

Clark, H. H. & Lucy, P. (1975). Understanding what is meant from what is said: a study in conversationally conveyed requests. JVLVB 14. 5672.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977). Wait for me, roller skate! In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (eds), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Holzman, M. (1972). The use of interrogative forms in the verbal interaction of three mothers and their children. JPsycholingRes 1. 311–36.Google Scholar
Katz, J. (1972). Semantic theory. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Remick, H. C. (1971). The maternal environment of linguistic development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Searle, J. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds), Speech acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. (1975 a). How young children respond to language: procedures for answering. PRCLD 10. 97110.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. (1975 b). On understanding messages: a study in the comprehension of indirect directives by young children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. (1976). Form and intent: mothers' questions to young children. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America,Philadelphia.Google Scholar